CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00975A010700040001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2002
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: January 8, 1968
• Content Type: REPORT

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DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
Central Intelligence Bulletin
Top Secret
C Id/
8 January 1968
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8 January
Central Intelligence Bulletin
CONTENTS
Vietnam: Situation report. (Page 1)
Czechoslovakia: New leadership may prove to be
unstable. Page 5)
Chile: Vote of confidence (Page 7)
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*Vietnam:
North Vietnam: Short-range, surface-to- surface
missiles intended for coastal defense may have been
introduced into North Vietnam. If confirmed, they could
endanger US warships conducting shore bombardment
operations along the coast.
Photography eveals two 25X1
positions just south of T an . oa which contain camou-
flaged equipment, including one object 'identified. as
probably an SS-N-2 (STYX) missile and several pos-
sible rail-type launchers. Both sites contain six
revetted positions that initially appeared to be intended
perations.
for surface-to-air missile o-
The sites were struck repeatedly by US Navy air-
craft on 5 and 6 January and operational reports indicate
that extensive damage was inflicted. There is no firm
evidence from photography or pilot reports, however,
that either site was occupied at the time of the attacks.
If North Vietnam has received STYX missiles to
oppose US naval operations near its coast, the locations
of the sites noted in photography are well- suited to this
purpose. This missile has a range of about 20 miles and
was the weapon used by the 'Egyptian Navy on 21 October
1967 to sink the Israeli destroyer Eil''at. US aircraft
carriers customarily operate beyond the range of a STYX
missile fired from the Vietnamese coast.
South Vietnam: Vice President Ky claims that he
and senior army generals have urged President Thieu to
exercise more dynamic leadership.
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Government administrative centers and Allied out-
posts in various parts of the country have been subjected
to enemy assaults during the past several days.
In Thua Thien Province on 6 January, the Communists
conducted a series of coordinated attacks against Phu
Lac District headquarters, three adjacent' Combined Action
Platoons and a US Marine reaction force. Friendly forces
suffered 34 killed and 80 wounded in these actions while
the enemy lost 91 killed. On 5 January in Quang Tin
Province, the enemy assaulted a US fire support base near
a district town which had been attacked on 3 January.
These two incidents cost the Allies 46 killed and 113
wounded while the enemy is reported to have lost 80 killed.
Other district headquarters in Quang Ngai and Quang
Nam provinces of I Corps have been recent Communist,
targets, while in II Corps, there were several coordinated
mortar barrages in and around the capital of Darlac
Province, A district headquarters in Tuyen Duc Province
of II Corps also received mortar fire on 5 January.
During the night of 6 January enemy forces appear
to have coordinated a number of incidents in the III Corps
provinces of Binh Duong and Bien Hoa. The brunt of this
effort was directed against a Vietnamese Army regimental
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headquarters at Tan Uyen in Bien Hoa Province. The
Communists did not succeed in overrunning the army
compound, but they appear to have held the town for several
hours. Almost simultaneously, at least four other en-
gagements occurred in the adjacent areas of Bien Hoa
and Binh Duong provinces. Preliminary casualty reports
from all incidents indicate Allied losses of 12 killed and
45 wounded. Enemy losses were unknown.
In southernmost IV Corps, the Viet Cong on 6 Jan-
uary hit a military training center, an army convoy and
a Revolutionary Development area in Vinh Long Province.
In adjacent Vinh Binh Province, two villages were as-
saulted and in Ba Xuyen Province, a district capital out-
post apparently overrun. This flurry of enemy activity
cost the Vietnamese at least 42 killed, 98 wounded and
67 weapons lost. Enemy casualties are unknown.
Cambodia- Vietnam- US: On the eve of Ambassador
Bowles' arrival in Phnom Penh, Prince Sihanouk has
held two weekend press conferences aimed at curbing
speculation about possible results of the meeting.
Sihanouk explicitly stated for the first time that a
major purpose of talks with Bowles or any US emissary
was to forestall any allied military actions across
Cambodia's borders. He was also particularly sensitive
to press stories that Bowles would attempt to negotiate
a right of hot pursuit, indicating that his own earlier
remarks on this subject were being widely misinterpreted.
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Sihanouk repeated that he was willing to act as an
intermediary between the US and Hanoi, but that the
Communists had given him no reason to believe that they
wished to use Phnom Penh as a channel. He did note,
however, that he would receive later this week the Soviet
ambassador to Cambodia and the chief of the Polish ICC
delegation at their request, presumably concerning the
attitudes of their governments toward Cambodia's re uest
for a strengthening of the ICC.
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Czechoslovakia. The new leadership in Czechoslo-
vakia may prove to be unstable.
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Slovak leader Alexander Dubcek's elevation to first
secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party--re-
placing Antonin Novotny- - appears to have been a last-
minute compromise among various interest groups with-
in the presidium and central committee at the party
plenum ending 5 January. 25X1
a publicity sprea w is 1 a been prepared on
panning chief Oldrich Cernik, who was thought to have
been a leading contender for Novotny's job.
Dubcek's position was probably somewhat strength-
ened, however, with the expansion of the party presidium
from ten to 14 members. The four new presidium mem-
bers, who were promoted over five candidate members
of that body, have played relatively minor roles in na-
tional politics but they do represent a regional balance.
They were added to counterbalance the presence of
Novotny and any of his potential, supporters who remain
in the party's ruling body.
The new men are experienced in some of Czecho-
slovakia's key economic problem areas. Their appoint-
ment and the communique of the central committee sug-
gest that economic improvement will be the first order
of business once the new regime completes its organiza-
tion.
Other leadership changes, both in the party and
government, are reportedly being considered. Pre-
mier Lenart may be replaced by Cernik when the par-
liament meets on 10 January. Conservative ideology
chief Jiri Hendrych may also go eventually. Hendrych
is said to have attempted to get on the anti-Novotny
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bandwagon during a December party meeting, but was
told by other presidium members that it was too late,
and that in any case his record prevented this.
According to several reports, the government
structure will be reorganized, although a picture of
its new shape has not yet emerged.
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*Chile: President Frei won a vote of confidence
from his Christian Democratic Party (PDC) over the
weekend, according to press reports. He obtained
the resignation of the leftist; directorate that has con-
trolled the party since last summer. Frei will now
have PDC support for his legislative program, but he
still faces trouble from the opposition-controlled
Senate.
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